Only A Theory
by Lady Conqueror
Summary: Dear Doctor Missing scene.


**Title:** Only A Theory

**Author:** Lady Conqueror

**Rating: **PG

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Enterprise or any of its characters, although if they want to give me Trip, I'll take him. Not making any profit from this.

**Feedback:** That'd be nice

**Spoilers:** Dear Doctor

**Summary:** Dear Doctor Missing scene.

**Authors Note: **Was going through some of my story files and found this I'd written awhile ago and figured I may as well post it up. At the time I remember not being happy with Archer's seeming sudden change of mind from arguing for giving the cure, to not handing it over. Used this to try and deal with that. I also understand that the science in this episode is rather dodgy but I was sticking to the show's presentation. No beta, all mistakes are my own.

**Only A Theory**

_Commander Trip Tucker stood in front of the warp core; nervous tensions making his senses seem in overdrive. Next to him, Lieutenant Hess gave him a wide grin. "It'll work, sir," she said confidently. "It'd better." Down below, Rostov called out, "We're holding steady at Warp 5, sir." The fact that they were holding steady at warp 5 was amazing enough by itself, what they were about to try... He took a deep breath and hit the comm. Panel,_

_"Engineering to the Bridge." _

_"Archer here." The Captain's voice came through loud and clear. _

_"We're as ready as we'll ever be, Cap'n," Trip informed him. _

_"Acknowledged." There was a pause and Trip could just imagine Archer looking at everyone in turn on the bridge and giving them a smile of encouragement. "Travis, let's hit the accelerator." _

_"Aye, Captain."_

_Trip wondered if he'd be able to tell the difference, but nothing shifted from his perspective and after a few moments when Rostov called out "Warp 5.1," he small pang of disappointment that it didn't feel any different rolled over him. Then again, quiet and smooth was probably much better. _

_"Warp 5.2."_

_Lt Hess's grin widened even further, "We're doing it, Sir." _

_"Hold your horse's, we've got a long way to go yet, Lt." He frowned a few of the readings in front of him, "Kelly!" he yelled out, "keep your eye on that plasma flow. It's starting to get a little high. We don't want it exploding on us." _

_"I'm on it, Commander," came the reply from somewhere down below._

_Trip kept an eye on the readouts as Rostov kept steadily announcing the speed increments._

_"Warp 5.5."_

_This was almost too easy. He glanced at Hess next to him but she was now absorbed in her own readouts, every now and then making a minute adjustment through the computer. _

_"Warp 5.8."_

_"Warp 6." Both Rostov and Travis's voice through the comm. sounded simultaneously. They'd done it. A few cheers went up but most people continued to concentrate on their own stations. Good, he thought, there would be time for cheering later._

_"Warp 6.2." What! Trip thought, we're supposed to be holding at 6. Before he could speak though, an alarm went off. _BRRRP! _It didn't sound like the regular alarms, though it was vaguely familiar as if he should know it. He looked around but everyone else was still bent over their computer consoles as if they heard nothing. _

_"Warp 6.5." _

BRRRP!

_"Did you hear that?" He yelled at Hess. She looked up briefly, "Hear what, Sir?"_

_"That Beeping noise." _BRRRP!_ "There!" he exclaimed as it went off again. Hess just looked confused. "I don't hear anything, sir." _

_"Warp 7." _

_"Seven! We're supposed to be at Warp 6!" Trip spoke to the Comm. "Cap'n, tell Travis to slow us down." _

_He hadn't planned for this speed; the engines surely wouldn't be able to take it much longer. No reply came from the bridge. _BRRRP!_ "Where's that damn noise coming from" he yelled into the silence. Now everyone in engineering was staring at him like he'd grown another head. _BRRRP!_ What was it and why wasn't anything happening because of it. As if that thought had brought the occurrence on, a pipe running behind his head suddenly exploded with a bang._

BRRRP!

Trip woke up with a start, his hand automatically reaching up to check for damage. A dream. It was just a dream. It took him a few moments to realise that the strange beeping noise from his dream was still sounding. BRRRP! And another few to recognise what it was. His door chime.

"Who the hell?" He muttered groggily as he climbed out of bed taking a quick look at the clock on his desk. 0315. He groaned to himself. BRRRP! "I'm coming!" He slapped the door control angrily, ready to abuse whoever had dared to wake him at this ungodly hour of the morning. The words died on his lips as he saw Captain Archer standing in the doorway, hands behind his back and a weary look on his face.

"Sorry to bother you Trip. Mind if I come in?"

"Sure." Trip stepped back a little to let Archer pass, the Captain turning side on to squeeze the rest of the way past, keeping his front facing toward Trip. "Sorry," he apologised again and Trip saw that the Captain was staring at his rumpled bed. Trip shrugged,

"Just dreamin' my life away. Nothin' that can't wait."

A brief smile crossed Archer's face, "How fast did you get her?" Trip goggled. Was he really that easy to read?

"Warp 7 before you woke me up."

"I don't suppose you remember _how _you managed that?"

Trip spread his hands, "Not a clue."

Archer smiled, though as before it was gone almost as soon as it touched his face. "If it's any consolation," he finally murmured, "I brought pie." From behind his back he pulled a plate with a single slice of pie, a dollop of cream and a fork. How had he missed that? He eyed it appreciatively; the Captain certainly knew how to read him. "What type is it?" He asked holding out his hands to take the offering.

"Blueberry." Mmmm, it smelled good. He sat down putting the plate on his small desk, but he didn't touch it straight away. He motioned for the Captain to sit down too, but wasn't surprised when he didn't. If there was one thing he knew well about Jonathon Archer it was that when something was bothering him, and sometimes even when it wasn't, the man liked to pace. The Captain coming to his quarters in the middle of the night bearing pie certainly didn't bode well. Something was seriously bothering the man.

"Things with the Valaakians not going so well?" Trip hazarded a guess at what was bothering his friend.

Archer grunted, "You could say that."

In some ways, Trip knew this was coming. He hadn't had much to do with the Valaakians himself - engineers weren't really much help with sick people and being a pre-Warp civilisation, their technology had been of little interest. However it didn't take a medical genius to figure out the odds of Enterprise being able to do anything were remote and eventually they'd have to move on. He pretty much said that,

"To be fair, as good as he is, Phlox is only one man and we've only been here a few days. He could hardly be expected to find a cure for a disease on this scale." It would probably take a team of Doctors working around the clock months, if not years. Still, he knew Archer and how he was likely to take it. He didn't take failure well, even if there was nothing that could realistically be done about it. He was surprised though when Archer said,

"Actually he found the cure."

"What? That's great!" Trip saw the grim look on Archer's face and, confused, amended his words, "Or not so great."

Archer sighed, "He doesn't think we should give it to them. He thinks the Menck are evolving in to being the dominant species and this disease might be nature's way of taking the Valaakian's out of the picture."

"So...what? They're genetically programmed to die out?"

"Something like that." To Trip's ears that sounded cruel, but since when did Mother Nature care about cruel versus kind. Still it didn't sit well with Trip and he was pretty sure there was no way in hell it would sit well with the Captain. At the look on Archer's face though that 'pretty sure' was maybe turning into a 'not so sure'

"You think he might be right?"

"I just don't know Trip. I've spent most of the night trying to read up on genetics and evolution trying to figure this out."

"And what did you find?"

"That there's a very good reason why I became a pilot and not an evolutionary scientist. I'm not ashamed to say that most of it was way above my head.'

"Maybe you should be talking to T'Pol. She'd know more about this stuff than I would."

Archer nodded, "No doubt."

Trip understood, to a degree. T'Pol would most likely toe the party line. He could almost hear her voice, "_Don't interfere," _and,_ "We should never have stopped in the first place."_ Trip could never understand that. How could it be wrong to help people? Or at least try. No, Archer was looking for a reason to go against Phlox's advice. Or perhaps he needed someone to play Devil's advocate against to be able to understand the other side of the argument. Or even just a sounding board to get his feelings out. Whatever the case, Trip started with the simplest argument he could,

"They're dying, and from what I've heard it's not a pleasant way to go."

Archer started pacing, "We've given them medicine to prolong their lives and ease their suffering. Maybe with the extra time they'll find the cure on their own."

"With their technology?" Trip sounded doubtful, "And how many of them will die in the meantime. People that could be saved now?"

"What about the Menck? They're evolving too."

"So? Will they stop because the Valaakians are still there?"

"Probably not, but the Valaakians might not be too happy when they realise what's happening. They already treat the Menck like second class citizens."

Trip squirmed. He'd heard about the way the Valaakians treated the Menck and he couldn't say he liked it. _But did the Valaakians deserve to die because of it. _He voiced as much aloud.

Archer stopped pacing but he didn't answer the question.

"Think of the consequences though. The Menck aren't going to take being treated like that for long once they overtake the Valaakians. And the Valaakians aren't going to want to lose top dog position."

"That doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be violent."

"How many wars? How much bloodshed happened on Earth because of people trying to keep other races and civilisations underfoot? And that was within the same species. You really think it would be different here?"

"It might. T'Pol's always telling us not to apply our human standards to everything. Maybe the Valaakians will turn out to be willing to share the planet."

Archer snorted, "If they were that enlightened they wouldn't be treating the Menck they way they do now. And it doesn't help their case that they already tried to emotionally blackmail me into giving them our Warp technology." Trip sat up straighter at that. There was no way these people were ready for that. He started to open his mouth to say so, but Archer held up a hand, "I already said no."

"Withhold a cure and let a sentient species go extinct, or interfere and possibly start an interspecies war, or genocide."

"Surely a certainty of what will happen beats a possibility. We know the cure will stop this extinction, we don't know what will happen with the Menck."

"But don't you see Trip; it's the possibility that bothers me the most. If anything happens between the Menck and Valaakiaan's those deaths will be directly our fault; our responsibility; because we interfered. I can't discount that, no matter how much I'd like too."

"Our ethics teachers back at Starfleet training never covered this topic."

"Maybe they should start."

"You had no way of knowing you'd face this situation."

"And yet here I am."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm not a scientist, from my reading tonight, that much is very clear. I have to trust the people I brought onboard to do their jobs and give me their best opinion, even if I don't like to hear it. This decision is too much like playing God; I'm not cut out for that."

"You're not giving them the cure." It was a statement, not a question.

"'We'll give them the interim treatment that Phlox devised and the details for making more. And I'll put in my decision to be reviewed by Starfleet Command, with the strong recommendation that they get the best scientific and ethical minds Earth and Vulcan has to offer to consult and debate it. Who knows maybe they'll come to a different decision."

"You're the boss," And on this day it was position Trip didn't envy a bit, "but I can't say I like it Cap'n."

"Me neither Trip. Me neither." They shared a look, one that conveyed just how much this was taking out of Jonathon Archer. Whatever he said this decision wouldn't rest well with the Captain any more than the decision to help would have. 'Damned if you do, damned if you don't', had never seemed a more appropriate saying at this moment. Archer turned towards the door and pressed the release, "Enjoy your pie, Trip." and with that he was gone. Trip looked down at his piece of pie. He hadn't touched it and probably wouldn't now. The conversation and the thoughts it had brought up didn't really whet the appetite.


End file.
